Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke via video link from the Cannes Film Festival.  In his speech, he compared Charlie Chaplin’s film “The Great Dictator” to the realities of modern war.  

 It is my honor to speak to you here.  

 Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends,  

I want to tell you a story, and many stories begin with “I have a story to tell.”  But in this case, the ending is much more important than the beginning.  There will be no open ending to this story, which will eventually bring to an end a century-long war.  

The war began with a train coming into the station (” The Train Coming into the Station “, 1895), heroes and villains were born, and then there was a dramatic conflict on screen, and then the story on screen became reality, and movies came into our lives, and then movies became our lives.  That’s why the future of the world is tied to the film industry.  

That’s the story I want to tell you today, about this war, about the future of humanity.  

The 20th century’s most brutal dictators were known to love movies, but the film industry’s most important legacy was the chilling documentary footage of news reports and films that challenged dictators.  

The first Cannes Film Festival was scheduled for September 1, 1939. However, The Second World War broke out.  For six years, the film industry was always on the front line of the war, always with humanity;  For six years, the film industry was fighting for freedom, but unfortunately it was also fighting for the interests of dictators.  

Now, looking back at these movies, we can see how freedom is winning step by step.  In the end, the dictator failed in his attempt to conquer hearts and minds.  

There are many key points along the way, but one of the most important is in 1940, in this film, you don’t see a villain, you see a nobody.  He doesn’t look like a hero at all, but he is a real hero.  

That film, Charles Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, failed to destroy the real dictator, but it was the start of a movie industry that didn’t sit back, watch and ignore.  The motion picture industry has spoken. It has spoken that freedom will triumph.  

These are the words that rang out across the screen at that time, in 1940:  

“The hatred of men will dissipate, the dictators will die, and the power they have taken from the people will return to them.  Every man dies, and as long as mankind does not perish, freedom will not perish.”  (The Great Dictator, 1940)  

Since then, many beautiful films have been made since Chaplin’s hero spoke.  Now everyone seems to understand: can conquer the heart is beautiful, not ugly;  A movie screen, not a shelter under a bomb.  Everyone seemed convinced that there would be no sequel to the horror of total war that threatened the continent.  

Yet, as before, there are dictators;  Once again, as before, the battle for freedom was fought;  And this time, as before, the industry should not turn a blind eye.  

On February 24, 2022, Russia launches an all-out war against Ukraine and continues its march into Europe.  What kind of war is this?  I want to be as accurate as possible: it’s like a lot of movie lines since the end of the last war.  

Most of you have heard these lines.  On screen, they sound eerie.  Unfortunately, those lines have come true.  

Remember?  Remember what those lines sounded like in the movie?  

“Do you smell it?  Son, it was napalm.  Nothing else smells like this.  I like the gas of napalm every morning….”  (Apocalypse Now, 1979)  

Yes, it was all happening in Ukraine that morning.  

At four in the morning.  The first missile went off, the air strikes began, and the deaths came across the border into Ukraine.  Their gear is painted with the same thing as a swastika – the Z character.  

“They all want to be more Nazi than Hitler.”  (The Pianist, 2002)  

New mass graves filled with tortured and murdered people are now found every week in both the Russian and former territories.  The Russian incursion has killed 229 children.  

“They only know how to kill!  Kill!  Kill!  They planted bodies all over Europe…”  (Rome, The Open City, 1945)  

You all saw what the Russians did in Bucha.  You’ve all seen Mariupol, you’ve all seen the Azov steel works you’ve all seen the theatres destroyed by Russian bombs.  That theater, by the way, was very similar to the one you have now.  Civilians took shelter from shelling inside the theater, where the word “children” was painted in large, prominent letters on the asphalt beside the theater.  We can’t forget this theater, because hell wouldn’t do that.  

“War is not hell.  War is war, hell is hell.  War is much worse than that.”  (Army Field Hospital, 1972)  

More than 2,000 Russian missiles have pounded Ukraine, razing dozens of cities and scorching villages.  

More than half a million Ukrainians were kidnapped and taken to Russia, and tens of thousands of them were detained in Russian concentration camps.  These concentration camps were modelled on Nazi concentration camps.  

No one knows how many of these prisoners survived, but everyone knows who is responsible.  

“Do you think soap can wash away your SINS?”  ”(Job 9:30)  

I don’t think so.  

Now, the most terrible war since World War II has been fought in Europe.  All because of that man sitting tall in Moscow.  Others were dying every day, and now even when someone shouted “Stop! The Cut!”  These people will not rise again.  

So what do we hear from the movie?  Will the film industry be silent or will it speak?  

Will the movie industry stand idly by when once again dictators emerge, when once again the battle for freedom begins, when once again the burden rests on our unity?  

The destruction of our cities is not a virtual image.  Many Ukrainians today have become Guidos, struggling to explain to their children why they are hiding in basements (Life is Beautiful, 1997).  Many Ukrainians have become Aldo.  Lt. Wren: Now we have trenches all over our land (Inglourious Basterds, 2009)  

Of course, we will continue to fight. We have no choice but to fight for freedom.  And I’m pretty sure that this time, dictators will fail again.  

But the entire screen of the free world should sound, as it did in 1940.  We need a new Chaplin. We need to prove once again that the film industry is not silent.  

Remember what it sounded like:  

“Greed poisons the human soul, blocks the world with hatred, and drives us towards misery and bloodshed.  We’ve grown faster and faster, but we’ve closed ourselves in: machines have made us richer, but hungrier;  Knowledge makes us pessimistic and skeptical;  Intelligence makes us heartless.  We think too much and feel too little.  We need humanity more than machinery, gentleness more than intelligence…  To those who can hear me, I say: Do not despair.  The hatreds of men will dissipate, the dictators will die.  

We must win this war.  We need the movie industry to bring this war to a close, and we need every voice to sing for freedom.  

And as always, the film industry has to be the first to speak!  

Thank you all, long live Ukraine.